Home/Finance/ Turkish court rejects United States pastor’s appeal to be released

Turkish court rejects United States pastor’s appeal to be released

Raquel Nash |Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said his country will boycott U.S. electronic products, after Washington imposed punitive sanctions on Ankara. "If you are going to park your money somewhere to stay away from the turmoil, the dollar is going to be the currency of choice", he said.

"If we postpone our investments, if we convert our currency to foreign exchange because there's danger, then we will have given in to the enemy", he said.

Government bonds rallied and the lira surged from local retail accounts sold dollars to take profit after the currency slid nearly 30 percent against the greenback over the past month.

That opinion is not shared by worldwide financial analysts, who worry Turkey's economy is so weak and dependent on foreign money that American tariffs could trigger a collapse that drags European markets down.

Turkish business groups have begged Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to ease up in his feud with the United States as the Turkish currency continues to struggle.

Brunson's lawyer, İsmail Cem Halavurt, filed the demand on August 14 around a week after his previous appeal was rejected by the Turkish court in the western province of İzmir. It was up 5 percent on Tuesday, at 6.55 per dollar, having fallen 42 percent so far this year, with most of those losses coming in recent weeks. Banks can extend the maturities, refinance loans, extend new debt to help troubled companies, and seek new collateral.

The lira was around 6.55 to the dollar on Tuesday, up 6% on the previous day after the central bank freed up cash for banks, and a slight recovery from a record low of 7.23 on Sunday.

That helped ease the turmoil in financial markets, with the Turkish lira stabilizing near record lows.

The lira is down roughly 40 per cent his year, dropping 10 per cent of its value on yesterday alone. "It can buy time, finger in the dike, but the longer term issues remain", said Tim Ash, a senior emerging market strategist at Bluebay Asset Management LLC in London.

Mr Erdogan has presided over soaring inflation and borrowing levels, but insists the lira's plight is the result of a "campaign" led by foreign powers.

Asked how U.S. President Donald Trump's administration would react to any such Turkish boycott, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders replied during Tuesday afternoon's briefing, "I certainly don't have a policy announcement on that at this point".

Turkey doubled tariffs on some US imports including alcohol, cars and tobacco on Wednesday in retaliation for USA moves, but the lira rallied further after central bank's liquidity moves had the effect of supporting the currency.

China denies internment of 1 mn Uighurs
People select vegetables at a bazaar ahead of Eid al-Adha festival in Aksu, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region on August 27, 2017. Police and security posts can be seen everywhere in Xinjiang.

InfoWars violated rules, but will remain on platform
Jones was also sued for defamation by the parents of two children who died in the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre in CT in April. Even pornographic website YouPorn announced yesterday that it would remove any videos featuring Jones from its site.

Clarify activists arrests — European Union to Saudis
In the long-term, Saudi Arabia may find it more hard to attract foreign investors in their effort to meet the Vision 2030 goals. The EU has called on Saudi Arabia to clarify on the circumstances concerning the detentions of women rights activists.

Taliban travel to Uzbekistan for talks with officials
The Taliban say they met with Alice Wells, the top USA diplomat for South Asia, in Qatar last month for preliminary talks. After repulsing the daring assault, police conducted house-to-house searches for any remaining Taliban fighters.

Church report: 1,000 child victims in Pennsylvania
Another child drank juice, only to wake up the next morning bleeding from his rectum and unable to remember what had happened. The state Supreme Court had set a Tuesday deadline to publicly release a redacted version of the roughly 900-page report.

Zinedine Zidane eyes Man United job after Real Madrid exit
Mourinho is under increased pressure to deliver success to United after failing to win a trophy at Old Trafford last season. Instead Zidane will instead take a year off to relax following the mental stress he was under at Real Madrid.